All-optical switching of solitons in an active nonlinear directional coupler

A numerical study of the all-optical switching properties of an active nonlinear directional coupler is presented. The switching power is reduced for both CW and soliton inputs because of the gain. The switching properties of the coupler are enhanced for solitons, which switch nearly completely. For ultrashort pulses, the effects of the bandwidth of the gain medium are considered by using a general form for the gain band. The gain spectrum of erbium is also considered as a specific example.     

Phase-induced switching in fiber nonlinear directional coupler

A numerical study of soliton switching characteristics and the maximum output coupling by the relative phase change of a control pulse is carried out for input powers, coupled coefficient and input soliton width. It is shown that input powers ratio, coupled coefficient and input soliton width play important roles in this mode of soliton switching and that these effects may lead to useful soliton switching if the relative phase of the control pulse is monitored judiciously.     

A comparative numerical study of soliton switching in a nonlinear directional coupler with saturating nonlinearity

A detailed numerical study of soliton switching in a nonlinear directional coupler with saturating nonlinearity is carried out. All commonly used models have been studied. Relevant physical characteristics for switching have been determined, compared and discussed.     

Gain-induced soliton switching in fiber nonlinear directional coupler

With study for switching characteristics and output coupling ratio of fiber nonlinear directional couplers (NLDC), we found that the influence elements on the switching characteristics and output coupling ratio had gain of core 1 and 2, nonlinear coefficient of those, the input power and width of input soliton. We also found numerically that switching efficiencies were improved by controlling gain of core 1, different output coupling ratio would be obtained by controlling gain of core 1 or 2. And we can change the gain by changing pump power of the optical fiber amplifiers. From this, we also made fiber coupler which output coupling ratio was changeable.     

All-optical logic gates using semiconductor-based three-coupled waveguides nonlinear directional coupler

All-optical logic gates with nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of three-coupled identical waveguides have been proposed and designed theoretically in a unique semiconductor-based symmetric structure. The model uses the NLO interactions of the coupled waveguides, like Kerr effect and Two Photon Absorption (TPA). Unlike the previous studies, we take into account higher order NLO effects of semiconductors such as Free Carriers (FC) and loss to control the switching operation. These NLO phenomena lead to high functionality in a simple unique structure. Therefore, in this work, by setting the input intensity of the waveguides, the logic AND, OR, NAND, and NOR gates are designed in a unique structure with different lengths. Our analysis deals with continuous waves (CW) region and the results are valid for the ranges of short optical pulses with time duration longer than FC life time.     

All-optical switching via second harmonic generation in a nonlinearly asymmetric directional coupler

Taking advantage of the nonlinear phase-shift obtainable via up- and down-conversion of a beam to and from its second- harmonic, an efficient all-optical switch can be realized adopting the standard directional coupler configuration with strong nonlinear asymmetry. Using coupled-mode theory we numerically demonstrate power switching in a half-beat length coupler with remarkable functional characteristics in a wide range of parameters.     

Vector soliton switching in a fiber nonlinear directional coupler

This paper reports a detailed numerical study of soliton switching in a high as well as low birefringent nonlinear coupler. It is shown that by controlling the polarization angle one can have nearly 100% transmission with excellent switching characteristics. It is shown that soliton remains stable during its propagation inside the coupler. However it is observed that high birefringent coupler exhibits relatively better soliton stability. We show that the coupler could be used as a soliton switch even at an input peak power less than the critical power, the power at which 50-50 power sharing takes place between the two cores, just by a judicious choice of the polarization angle.     

Efficient nonlinear phase shifts due to cascaded second-order processes in a counterpropagating quasi-phase-matched configuration

A counterpropagating quasi-phase-matched configuration is examined that is capable of efficiently producing second-order cascaded nonlinear phase shifts with minimal power lost to the second harmonic. For all-optical switching in a nonlinear Mach-Zehnder interferometer, the calculated minimum input power needed for switching (i.e., to yield a +/-pi/2 phase shift) is 40 times smaller than the power needed in the standard typeI copropagating configuration. The throughput of this counterpropagating device is 96% at the optimum switching point.     

All-optical amplification via the interaction among guided and leaky propagation modes in lithium niobate waveguides exploiting the cascaded second-order nonlinearity

The aim of this paper consists of performing a theoretical investigation of an all-optical amplifier and discussing the problems for a realistic implementation. An original periodically poled lithium niobate channel waveguide, having the optical c-axis opportunely oriented on the xz plane was considered. The waveguiding structure, designed to operate in the second communication window of optical fibers, shows versatile properties as was theoretically demonstrated. In fact, it enables both the selection and the coupling strength of four different propagation modes, two guided and two leaky, interacting via the cascaded second-order nonlinearity. The coupling among guided and leaky modes is obtained by means of two different techniques: (i) birefringence phase-matching (BPM) via a suitable orientation of the optical c-axis crystal on the xz plane and (ii) quasi-phase-matching by periodical inversion of the lithium niobate ferroelectric domains. A strong diffusion of magnesium in the region external to the periodically poled waveguiding channel is needed in order to achieve the suitable BPM and to maximize the bounding of the electromagnetic field and, thus, the overlapping integrals. Finally, a powerful refinement of device operation via the use of the seeded second harmonic waves is proposed. Gains of the order of 20 dB are achieved with reduced bias powers. The order of magnitude of the bias power decreases, with respect to the unseeded second harmonic operation, from 145 to 32 W.     

Optical switching in a coupler with saturable nonlinearity

Abstact We report in this paper a numerical study of optical switching in couplers with saturable nonlinearity. Regions that characterize different coupling behaviour are revealed. It is shown that, in the presence of saturation, a Gaussian pulse should be used instead of solitons for negligible pulse splitting between the coupler arms. Nearly complete switching is possible depending on the input optical power and the index saturation parameter.     

Light propagation in a directional coupler with saturable nonlinearity

The propagation of laser radiation in a nonlinear directional coupler with identical optical waveguides is studied theoretically. Account is taken of refractive index saturation. Bifurcations of the intensity distribution and transmission characteristic are revealed, and respective regions in the parameter plane are delineated. Two points of input intensity self-switching are found. A coupling length vs. normalized input intensity is investigated for different values of the nonlinearity parameter. Distinctive features of the coupler with saturated nonlinearity compared with Kerr-type couplers are highlighted.     

Nonclassical light in symmetric nonlinear directional coupler

We examine the quantum-statistical properties of light beams in a directional symmetric nonlinear coupler composed of one linear waveguide and two nonlinear waveguides operating by the second-harmonic generation. Linear and nonlinear mismatches are taken into account. Non-classical behaviour of single and compound modes in such a device is investigated. This work was partially supported by the Grant 202/96/0421 of the Czech Grant Agency and by the Complex Grant VS96028 of Czech Ministry of Education.     

All-optical switching in quadratically nonlinear waveguide arrays

We demonstrate a scheme for efficient switching and routing of low-power signals in waveguide arrays with second-order nonlinearity. With control beams the signal can be switched to different output positions and can be simultaneously converted to another wavelength with low cross talk.     

Critical power in a symmetric nonlinear directional coupler

An alternative theoretical analysis directed to obtaining a more accurate expression for the critical power in the symmetric nonlinear directional coupler, or other nonlinear, five-layer waveguiding structures, is reported. Our analysis works with the nonlinear supermodes of the waveguide, and it is presented as an improvement of the preceding study by Silberberg and Stegeman [1]. Numerical simulations comparing both techniques, and by means of the beam propagation method, are reported for a few cases. A set of three representative, power dependent parameters is proposed, in order to give a comprehensive view of the power flow between both branches in the device as a function of the excitation conditions.     

Chirp controllable all-optical router in a nonlinear directional coupler

We analyzed the evolution of chirped optical pulses in a nonlinear directional coupler by coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations. It is shown that an optical pulses launched into one channel can couple out from either of the two channels of the nonlinear directional coupler, with the routing determined by the chirp of the pulse. This is different from the previous routing mechanism of the nonlinear directional coupler where routing is determined by the peak power of the pulse. Based on the chirp-dependent feature, all-optical router and switch could be implemented by the pulse chirp modulation.     

High-order nonlinear phase shift caused by cascaded third-order processes

We show, for the first time to our knowledge, that the fundamental beam that participates in the process of third-harmonic generation experiences an additional high-order nonlinear phase shift. The magnitude of the shift is proportional to the square of the pump intensity and the length of the sample and depends on the deviation from the exact phase-matched condition. This phase shift arises from cascaded third-order processes. Its value can exceed the value of the phase shift that originates from inherent fifth-order susceptibility of the nonlinear medium. Its sign is controllable by the sign of the phase mismatch of the third-harmonic generation process.     

All-optical switching by Kerr nonlinear prism and its application to of binary-to-gray-to-binary code conversion

Nonlinear optics deals with numerous physical phenomena associated with nonlinear cubic susceptibility. In this paper, we have proposed an all-optical switching principle using Kerr effect considering the passage of optical wave through a prism made of non-linear material like fused silica. The performances of the optical switch as well as its various properties were also done by numerical simulation. Furthermore, we also proposed all-optical binary-to-Gray and Gary-to-binary (radix 2) code convertor circuits by this proposed architecture.     

Exact analysis of cascaded second-order nonlinearity in rotated Ti:LiNbO3 Couplers

The effects of anisotropic coupling on the nonlinear behavior of different LiNbO₃ waveguides and couplers employing cascaded second-order nonlinearity are analyzed and the importance of leaky mode effect is shown. A set of practical coupling structures made of both symmetric and asymmetric waveguides is investigated and their performance is compared. The home-made computer-code, based on coupled wave theory and anisotropic mode propagation in the complex domain, allows an exact electromagnetic investigation of devices, taking into account both guided and leaky propagation in structures which exhibit losses, the generated second harmonic wave having leaky nature. As an example, for the well-investigated slab three layer waveguide, by taking into account the leaky nature of the generated second harmonic, the modal mismatch = 333 m^–1 is obtained at the azimuthal angle _m 61.9 (between the crystal optical c-axis and the propagation direction) while the angle found via the conventional approach is _m 63.5. Moreover, the calculated second harmonic wave exhibits an attenuation equal to 7.44 × 10^–1dB/cm that strongly influences the whole cascaded second-order phenomenon. The simulation results, for those structures in which it is possible to neglect the hybrid and leaky nature of the propagation modes, are compared with the literature data and an excellent agreement is found.     

Tunable generation of entangled photons in a nonlinear directional coupler

The on‐chip integration of quantum light sources has enabled the realization of complex quantum photonic circuits. However, for the practical implementation of such circuits in quantum information applications, it is crucial to develop sources delivering entangled quantum photon states with on‐demand tunability. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate the concept of a widely tunable quantum light source based on spontaneous parametric down‐conversion in a simple nonlinear directional coupler. We show that spatial photon‐pair correlations and entanglement can be reconfigured on‐demand by tuning the phase difference between the pump beams and the phase mismatch inside the structure. We experimentally demonstrate the generation of split states, robust N00N states, various intermediate regimes and biphoton steering on a single chip. Furthermore we theoretically investigate other regimes allowing all‐optically tunable generation of all Bell states and flexible control of path‐energy entanglement. Such wide‐range capabilities of a structure comprised of just two coupled nonlinear waveguides are attributed to the intricate interplay between linear coupling and nonlinear phase matching. This scheme provides an important advance towards the realization of reconfigurable quantum circuitry.

     

All-optical switching of dark states in nonlinear coupled microring resonators

We propose and analyze an on-chip all-optical dynamic tuning scheme for coupled nonlinear resonators employing a single control beam injected in parallel with a signal beam. We show that the nonlinear Kerr response can be used to dynamically switch the spectral properties between a "dark state" and electromagnetically induced transparency configurations. Such a scheme can be realized in integrated optical applications for pulse trapping and delaying.